A new study has revealed that Israeli settlers have intensified acts of violence against Palestinian children over the past two years.

The study conducted by Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI) said on Monday that it has investigated 38 cases of settler violence against minors.

The attacks caused the deaths of three children and left 42 others injured, the rights group said.

The study also found the attacks are usually carried out in groups and include verbal harassment, intimidation, physical assault and the destruction of property.

Physical assault and intimidation was reported in at least 15 cases, and stone throwing in another nine incidents. In 13 of the cases, settlers opened fire, killing three children and injuring another 10.

Verbal abuse was documented in almost every case, according to the report.

"Continued settlement expansion and a growing settler population in the occupied territory have severely impacted the security of the Palestinian population, particularly children, whose lives are increasingly threatened by willful attacks perpetrated by extremist settlers," the report said.

In eight cases, soldiers colluded with the assailants either by joining in, turning a blind eye to or punishing the victims rather than the perpetrators.

Israel's failure to enforce the law and hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions has "created an atmosphere in which settlers enjoy impunity and Palestinians live in fear," the DCI study concluded.

Palestinians in the Israeli occupied West Bank face waves after waves of Israeli terror campaigns throughout the year. These terror waves are committed by Israeli extremist settlers (colonizers) as well as the Israeli army. The most common attacks include violent trespassing on Palestinian properties during the night, stone throwing at civilians and their homes, physical assaults on farmers, children and women, destruction of all types of properties, burning civilian structures, crops and trees, shooting livestock, poisoning wells, and theft of crops and cutting fruit trees. The worst of these Israeli terror attacks are committed during harvest seasons, especially during olive season.

Olive trees are very important part of the Palestinian agricultural economy. They have been a major source of livelihood for Palestinians for thousands of years. Olive groves are spread all over the country and every Palestinian house has a couple of olive trees in its front or backyards. Many olive trees are thousands of years old.

As one of their key sources of income, the olive harvest season is a time of critical importance for Palestinians. Harvesting olives is a Palestinian communal activity that involves all classes of population. All family members; children as well as seniors, can be seen working in the fields. School students also volunteer to help farmers during the season. Olive mills and pressers open for business during this season to produce oil, to can pickled olives, and to export the products to other countries. The whole country becomes as busy as a bee hive. Over the last decades olive harvesting has become increasingly difficult due to Israeli settlers (colonizers) and army attacks.

Israeli governments as well as extremist settlers (colonizers) understand that Palestinians get more attached to their country during harvest season, especially during olive harvest. In order for the Zionist Israeli transfer/eviction plan of Palestinians to succeed, this Palestinian sacred attachment to the land must be broken. Thus the Palestinian economy and especially farm land is targeted by the Israeli government as well as the terrorist settlers (colonizers).

To destroy Palestinian farm land the Israeli government designates fields as closed military areas, surround it with barbed wires, and prevent entry to Palestinian farmers. The Israeli apartheid/separation wall had also isolated Palestinian farmers from their land. Although Palestinians resort to Israeli High Court requesting permissions to access their land during harvest seasons, yet no access has ever been granted. Neglected and unattended the fields and the trees become spoiled. After few years the Israeli government claims custodianship of the fields according to the Israeli law of Absentees Property. Israeli contractors, then, uproot all fruit trees and build colonies.

Israeli armed extremist terrorist settlers (colonizers) build their colonies on usurped Palestinian land and start terrorizing the adjacent Palestinian villages. Understanding the value and importance of the olive groves to the Palestinian farmers, those extremist Israeli terrorists target this major economic source in an attempt to drive Palestinians away. They invade olive groves with their tractors and bulldozers to harvest the olives for themselves, to uproot trees, to cut branches, to poison water wells, to set fire to crops, and to attack all Palestinians, who attempt to protect their fields. Many times, at the beginning of harvest season, they spray the fruit trees with chemicals to spoil the harvest and to kill the trees.

The terror attacks of settlers (colonizers) during harvest time has been gradually increasing every years until lately it had become a widespread phenomenon. The Israeli Haaretz noted that Israeli police reports have shown that settlers attacks against Palestinians during olive harvest season this year is the highest for the last ten years. I have counted in the media at least 35 terrorist attacks throughout the West Bank specifically related to olive harvest since the beginning of month of October. Many other attacks have not been reported due isolation and to media obstruction. Such number is a clear indication of a wide spread systematic plan of targeting Palestinian farmers during their olive harvest.

Other terrorist attacks such as setting fire to schools and mosques, shooting Palestinian civilians, intentional vehicular hit and run of Palestinian children, violent night raids against Palestinian homes, and eviction of Palestinian families and forceful occupation of their homes are still rampant although not counted in this article.

The majority of settlers terrorist attacks (90%) took place in areas where Israeli army has security jurisdiction under the Oslo Accord. The increasing frequencies of the attacks indicate at least an intentional failure of the Israeli security forces to protect Palestinians. Under international law an occupying power (Israel in this case) is responsible for the safety of the people under occupation (the Palestinians). The attacks keep on happening in the same areas over and over again. If willing, the Israeli government could send security forces to these areas to prevent clashes. In its complicity the Israeli government encourages terrorist settlers (colonizers) to continue their attacks.

Those terrorist settlers (colonizers) are not restricted to one certain segment of Israelis, rather they come from the whole social spectrum of Israelis; religious, orthodox, secular and mixed colonizers. Their terrorism reflects the true genocidal nature of the Zionist ethnic cleansing philosophy and plan for establishing Greater Israel in an Arab-free Middle East.

Pictures and videos all over the internet show the presence of Israeli soldiers watching settlers attacking Palestinians and don't break up the clashes except to defend settlers, and to harass, beat, arrest Palestinians who dare to defend their groves, and to confiscate the whole harvested crops claiming it as evidence. In cases were arson is involved the Israeli soldiers usually obstruct access of Palestinian firefighters at nearby roadblocks.

Many Palestinian farmers had resorted to the Israeli police reporting the attacks and requesting protection. Since the job of the Israeli police is to protect settlers (colonizers) rather than Palestinians, they ignore such reports. The Israeli Yesh-Din organization (Volunteers for Human Rights) released a study showing that over 90% of police alleged investigations into settlers attacks against Palestinians fail to produce any indictment and were closed on the grounds of unknown perpetrators or insufficient evidence.

The phenomenon of terrorist attacks by Israeli settlers (colonizers) against Palestinian farmers have been noticed by international human rights organizations such as International Solidarity Movement (ISM), who have arranged to send international volunteers to help and to protect Palestinian farmers while harvesting olives. The presence of such international volunteers, with their cameras, had in some areas, deterred and prevented violent settlers (colonizers) and Israeli soldiers from attacking Palestinian farmers. In other areas ISM volunteers, themselves, were specifically targeted by extremist settlers (colonizers) and had sustained injuries even during the presence of Israeli soldiers, who just stood there watching the attacks.

Since attacking ISM volunteers have been captured on cameras and broadcasted throughout European countries the Israeli government had adopted strict and harsh measures to deny international volunteers entry at the airport. The Israeli army had also issued orders to Palestinian villages warning them that housing international activists is illegal and would result in arrests. It was also reported through Palestinian radio that large fines of 6000 NIS have been sentenced against farmers who had invited international activists to accompany them during the olive harvest.

After the harvest Palestinian farmers either sell their olives as is, or press them and sell them as olive oil. Another Israeli method of destroying Palestinian olive harvest is by imposing high fees and taxations against the export of Palestinian olive products. Since Israeli army controls all border terminals the Israeli government hinders and delays the export of olive. In many occasions the products would be stored in warehouses until they get spoiled while waiting for export permits. Meanwhile Palestinians are charged high fees and taxes for storing and exporting their olives. Farmers end up selling their products locally for very cheap prices. Israeli companies would also buy the products from the farmers then turn around and sell them abroad as Israeli products making a lot of profits.

Israeli government always put the responsibility on Hamas government or Lebanese government for any border violent incident against Israeli settlers. Yet it does not take any responsibility for their terrorist settlers attacking Palestinian farmers, stealing their crops, and burning their trees. On the contrary Palestinian farmers are taken to Israeli courts, charged with attacking settlers, and forced to pay large amounts of fines. Such actions send a clear encouraging message to settlers to continue their terrorist crimes.

Settlers (colonizers) attacks have become as a guaranteed phenomenon as the harvest season itself. Those terrorist settlers (colonizers) are funded by large segments of the American Jewish community and by American tax exempted Jewish organizations with the knowledge and protection of both the Justice Department and Department of Home Land Security. Such funding encourages more terrorism and counter-terrorism rather than peace the Obama administrations claims to pursue in the Middle East.

Dr. Elias Akleh is an Arab writer from a Palestinian descent born in the town of Beit Jala. His family was first evicted from Haifa after the Nakba of 1948, then from Beit Jala after the Nakseh of 1967. He lives now in the US, and publishes his articles on the web in both English and Arabic.

JERUSALEM Palestinian children are coming under increasing attack by a handful of violent, extremist Jewish settlers, a rights group said on Monday in a report on the human cost of settlement expansion.

The study, compiled over two years by Defence for Children International-Palestine (DCI), investigated 38 separate incidents of settler violence towards minors that resulted in the deaths of three children and injuries to 42 others.

Details of the attacks were set out in sworn affidavits and compiled in the report: "Under Attack: Settler violence against Palestinian children in the occupied Palestinian territory."

Such attacks are usually carried out in groups and tend to be characterised by verbal harassment, intimidation, physical assault and the destruction of property, the study found.

In 13 of the cases, settlers opened fire, killing three children and injuring another 10.

Physical assault and intimidation was also reported in 15 cases, and stone throwing in another nine incidents. Cursing and verbal abuse was documented in almost every case.

"Continued settlement expansion and a growing settler population in the occupied territory have severely impacted the security of the Palestinian population, particularly children, whose lives are increasingly threatened by wilful attacks perpetrated by extremist settlers," the report said.

In eight cases, soldiers colluded with the attack by either joining in, turning a blind eye or punishing the victims rather than the perpetrators, it found.

Incidents of violence tended to be concentrated in certain areas, with 21 attacks carried out in and around the southern city of Hebron, and another seven near Nablus in the north, close to the Yitzhar and Bracha settlements -- "areas where settlers adhere to extremist and violent ideologies," the report said.

Data compiled by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA also appear to show that violent attacks are most frequent in the Hebron area.

Casualty figures from the same two-year period, March 2008 to July 2010, show there were 222 reports of settler attacks on Palestinians that left 364 people wounded -- 93 of them children.

Exactly half of those attacks took place in the Hebron area.

The DCI study also found that Israel's failure to enforce the law and hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions had "created an atmosphere in which settlers enjoy impunity and Palestinians live in fear."

Veronica Naranjo, one of the DCI researchers involved in compiling the report, said that none of the settlers involved in the 38 incidents of violence had been prosecuted.

"Not one single settler was prosecuted in any of these cases," she told AFP, while indicating that some families had refused to lodge a complaint "for fear of retaliation."

"These attacks are carried out with impunity. Children need protection against these attacks, but that cannot happen without accountability," she said.

Annual figures compiled by Israeli rights group Yesh Din about complaints of settler offences against Palestinians have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations fail to lead to a prosecution.

In response to the allegations in the report, Naftali Bennett, the Yesha Council of settlers head, said the two populations lived most of the time "in peaceful coexistence." When violence did erupt, it was started by the Palestinians.

"Despite the tone of this report, it is important to acknowledge that most events of violence against residents of this area in fact originate from the Arab side, including several shooting attacks in recent weeks," he told AFP.

The council, he said, was "strongly opposed to all acts of violence from any party as these actions are contrary to the sense of peaceful coexistence that we are working to preserve."

Israeli police, who are responsible for all settler-related affairs, had no immediate response to the report, and the military said it was weighing a response to allegations that its troops had colluded with the settler violence.

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- The Fatah Central Committee met on Sunday afternoon in the West Bank city of Hebron and discussed ways to "strengthen the steadfastness" of people living in the community in the face of what they saw as an escalation of attacks by Israeli settlers.

The meeting was chaired by the secretary of the committee, Abu Maher Ghneim, and included members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and Fatah leaders.

Hebron's old city is the site of militant settler compounds and is under direct Israeli military rule. Palestinians are banned from certain areas in what used to be the heart of the West Bank's largest city.

The Fatah officials condemned settlers' recent attacks on Palestinian mosques and churches and Israeli authorities' frequent closures of Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque. Fatah also called on Israel to end settlement activity in the West Bank and stop the demolition of Palestinian houses and confiscation of land in Jerusalem.

In a statement the Fatah Central Committee also called for an end to the political rift with its rival, the Hamas movement.

On 13 July 2009, Jameel (16) and two electricians were to his home when they heard the sound of weapons being cocked and an Israeli soldier saying stop, you mother***r.

The four Israeli soldiers verbally abused Jameel, took his ID and broke his mobile phone. Family members soon arrived as they had heard the bews. After several minutes the soldiers marched Jameel toward Ramat Yeshai settlement and told his mother and cousin that it was a closed area and they would be shot at if they followed them, after telling them moments before "go back you whores."

At a checkpoint near the settlement. Jameel was blindfolded and had his hands tied with plastic cords. He was forced to stand near the checkpoint as 40-50 settlers threw stones and brutally beat him, including punching him in the neck, causing the boy extreme pain and nausea.

They also verbally abused him calling him a son of a whore and a motherf***er. Soldiers also brutally beat him. His head was smashed into the ground knocking him unconscious. Jameels family witnessed some of the abuse and his father captured part of the incident on a camera given to him by BTselem.

A BTselem fieldworker was also present. Eventually an officer cut the plastic ties and told Jameel that he could go. He walked away and then was ordered to stop. Grabbing Jameels chin, the officer said: "If you tell the Israeli police or the press or human rights organizations about what happened, I'll kill you or shoot you from a distance if I can't reach you." Jameel went to Ahlia hospital for medical treatment.

After leaving the hospital he and his father went to file a complaint at the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement. They were told to come back the next day which they did. They met with an interrogator and signed a paper in Hebrew that allegedly contained what they had said. Following the attack, Jameel suffered from insomnia and feels scared and unsafe around his neighbourhood.

Settler youth leaders publish 'pocket dictionary' with sophisticated, up-to-date swear words to be used against cops on different occasions. 'Trash', 'scumbag' out; 'wine vinegar', 'Indian' in. Officers who don't keep their promise should be called 'Bibi'.

With the end of the construction freeze and the beginning of the outpost-razing season, settlers present a new lexicon of conversational curse words for everyday use.

The new pocket book dictionary has been distributed recently among Hilltop Youth, and contains behavioral guidelines to be followed during the razing of outposts, as well as a list of recommended swear words to use against police officers.

From now on, the youth will use "cleaner" language and verbal assaults that combine biblical motifs and sophisticated, up-to-date slang. "Trash" and "scumbag" out; "wine vinegar" and "Indian" in.

The "dictionary" is updated with the latest current affairs; for example, if a cop acts without judgment, he should be told: "Who sent you, dumbass Barak?," in reference to a recent comment made by Labor Union leader Ofer Eini.

A skullcap wearing police officer should be called "Mafdalnik," after members of the National Religious Party, which was associated with the Zionist movement and settlers, and dissolved in 2008.

Special police unit officers who don't keep their promise should be called "Bibi" (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nickname), while a left-wing cop should be addressed as "Son of Rahab."

The booklet's introduction explains the timing of the publication: "In recent months, police officers have been employing more violence during the destruction of houses in the hills.

"Special police unit officers, Border Guard officers and even Arab workers that come to tear down the houses are acting in impudence, while using extreme violence and obscenity," the intro read.

"There are no words to describe the feeling of a boy or a girl who are being blasted by Border Guard or special police unit officers. There is no doubt that we must answer these cops," it read.

So from now on, the jumble of random blasphemies during outpost evacuations will be replaced by a soundtrack of witty slang words.

In response to the publication of the booklet, Right-wing activist Itamar Ben Gvir told Yedioth Ahronoth, "The booklet should lead cops who participate in razing of outpostS to do some soul searching."

Ben Gvir noted that "not all cops should be generalized, as some try to maintain restraint, but those who do not are the ones we target."5 nov 2010

The state and the groups involved concealed the transactions and refused to give any information about them.

State gave East Jerusalem lands to rightist groups without tenders.

Investigation reveals Israel Lands Administration transferred properties in Silwan and in Old City to Elad and Ateret Cohanim for low prices, bypassing law.

The Israel Lands Administration is transferring properties in the Silwan neighborhood and the Old City of Jerusalem to right-wing groups Elad and Ateret Cohanim for low prices, without issuing a tender as required by law, a Haaretz investigation has found.

The state and the groups involved concealed the transactions and refused to give any information about them.

At the end of a lengthy legal struggle conducted by left-wing activist Dror Etkes, the court decided to have the ILA release only part of the information, to prevent the properties identification.

Haaretz has located three of the properties the ILA reported on at the court's instruction.

The inquiry shows the ILA's list does not include dozens of properties, perhaps because they were handed over to other related organizations or subsidiaries, some of which are registered abroad.

Some of them may be tax shelters.

Haaretz has exposed transcripts of conversations held by controversial Elad leader David Beeri with then-Public Security Minister Avi Dichter during a visit to some of the properties in 2008.

The transcripts illustrate that even if the acts were carried out by law, as the organizations keep saying, their end increasing the Jewish population of East Jerusalem sometimes justified unconventional means.

Elad commented that it is acting to buy properties but everything it does is legal, transparent and honest.

The ILA said it had passed on all the required information. Ateret Cohanim chose not to comment.

The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz issued a report Thursday detailing the contents of recently-released government documents showing that the Israeli government illegally transferred property to right-wing Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem.

While right-wing group Elad has previously claimed that all of its transactions to acquire land in East Jerusalem were legal, documents released as part of the settlement of a lawsuit by peace activist Dror Etkes show that this claim is false.

The court order did not require the release of information on which properties were illegally obtained by the settler group, but investigative reporters from Ha'aretz say they were able to locate three of the properties listed in the documents.

The documents show that the Israeli Lands Administration handed over property to Elad and other groups illegally without proper documentation or pricing, many of which were then transferred to other groups and individuals, or used as tax shelters. Most of these properties were illegally seized from Palestinian landowners by the Israeli Lands Administration using the 'Absentee Property Act' of 1950.

The land in question is located in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan and the Old City of Jerusalem, both areas which have been identified by the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem as key neighborhoods to 'Judaize' as part of the 'E1 Jerusalem' Plan.

Elad is a group set up with the specific purpose of 'Judaizing' East Jerusalem in order to take over the hillside east of the Temple Mount, with the eventual goal of replacing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, with a Jewish Temple.5 nov 2010

JERICHO (Ma'an) -- A PLO report on settler violence said Friday that a sharp increase in assaults on Palestinians and vandalism of property ws recorded for October.

According to the report, Palestinians in the West Bank reported a total of 277 cases of settler violence from August through October 2010, with a sharp increase in incidents in the last weeks of October.

"While Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is a daily occurrence in the occupied Palestinian territory, the past three months have seen a steady increase in settler violence against Palestinian civilians and property to coincide with the annual olive harvest," the report said.

The report was released a week after four Israeli rights groups sent a letter to Israeli military officials in the West Bank, including Central Command Chief General Avi Mizrahi and commander of Israeli military forces in the West Bank Brigadier Nitzan Alon. The letter detailed the settler assaults of Palestinians harvesting olives, and outlines expectations for halting the abuses.

The PLO report also noted the prevalence of weapons amongst settlers, adding that private weapons were frequently used against Palestinians during confrontations.

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) Israeli settlers have expanded construction work on a Palestinian-owned house in Jerusalem's Old City they took control of nearly a year ago.

Witnesses said settlers brought construction equipment and furniture to the building, which is owned by Fatima Dahoody, 80.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society's Jerusalem chairman, Nasser Qaws, confirmed these reports, saying settlers are attempting to add another floor to the building.

Dahoody, the elderly owner, still lives in a small part of the structure. In late January, Israeli settlers began an illegal squat in the home after an Israeli court granted settlers partial access to the building.

Fatima Dahoody, 80, was staying at the house of her son in Beit Hanina when settlers entered the Old City residence and changed the locks.

A Magistrates court in Jerusalem ordered Dahoody out of the home on 25 January, and granted Israeli settlers access to part of the building in shifts, 8am-8pm for men and 8pm-8am for women.

The woman's son said the family had owned the home since 1990, and that court action by the settler group began after they tried unsuccessfully to take over the home in November 2008. At that time police evicted the would-be squatters.

Shomron Settlers' Committee urges 'supporters of Land of Israel' to boycott performances, works of artists who refuse to appear in Ariel. Katzover: Separate politics from the arts.

Following the publication of another letter calling on artists to boycott the soon-to-open Ariel culture center, the Shomron Settlers' Committee urged residents to boycott the signatories' performances and works.

Committee head Benny Katzover said Sunday, "The ongoing boycott of places located in the heart of the Jewish homeland is anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist."

Among the signatories of the letter are Hanna Maron and Ohad Naharin, both Israel Prize laureates, and author David Grossman.

"Our (boycott) call is directed at Israelis who support the Land of Israel," Katzover said. "We call for the separation of politics from the arts. All citizens, regardless of where they live, are entitled to enjoy art, particularly when it is funded by tax payers' money. It appears that our call has not been heeded, and therefore we decided to act."

Also on Sunday, Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) said, "Those who will take part in the boycott must take into account that their budgetary wings will be clipped.

"We won't let the parasite artists who milk the public purse enjoy the best of both worlds. Those who boycott should ask (Palestinian Prime Minister) Salam Fayyad for money not the Knesset," he said.

Jerusalem PNN - Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth published a report on Monday about the attempted murder of a Chilean tourist in Jerusalem by eight Jewish extremists who mistook him for an Arab.

Jose Dominus Nolido, 43, came to Israel to celebrate the wedding of his son's Jewish friend and visit holy sites. As he returned to his hotel, Nolido said he was accosted by youths.

I decided to return to my room and I went through Independence Park, Nolido explained. Suddenly a youth attacked me. I thought he was a soldier, since he had on Israeli army pants. I tried to flee, but I ran into seven others. I fell on the ground and couldn't get away from the blows. Then I lost consciousness. I was convinced they wanted to kill me because I looked like an Arab.

Nolido was taken to a Jerusalem hospital, bleeding from the head and eyes. Doctors said they feared loss of vision in his right eye.

They said I looked like an Arab, he said. I didn't think that would cost me my life.

Israeli police said that the assault had a nationalist character and that the Jewish attackers took him for an Arab or Palestinian. Five of the suspects were settlers from ultra-Orthodox areas of Jerusalem.

I don't think I'll come back to Israel, said Nolido. He explained that he knew the Israeli-Palestinian conflict well, but never thought he would be attacked because of his appearance.

The Hebron Fund has scheduled the Hebron Aid Flotilla, a pleasure cruise to raise funds for illegally Israeli settlements in occupied Hebron, Palestine.

The honoree is Caroline Glick, the Jerusalem Post columnist infamous for the We Conned the World YouTube video, which sought to discredit the Freedom Flotilla and joked about the massacre on the Mavi Marmara.

Please join a broad coalition in protesting The Hebron Fund's annual fundraiser dinner that stands together for Hebron and Eretz Yisrael supporting the illegal settlement movement that is displacing and brutalizing Palestinians.

HEBRON SETTLERS NEED HUMANITARIAN IMPULSES NOT HUMANITARIAN AID

Organized by an Ad Hoc Coalition including members of Adalah-NY, American Jews for a Just Peace, Brooklyn For Peace, CodePink, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews Say No and US Boat To Gaza

How much force is necessary to arrest a 15-year-old boy? Border Guard officers arrived at the Havat Gilad outpost Thursday after a nearby Palestinian field was set on fire, most likely by settlers.

The troops entered a local yeshiva and arrested a teenager for his suspected involvement in the fire and for throwing stones at soldiers. The settlers accused the officers of using excessive force after they choked, hit and pepper-sprayedthe boy's face.

At first, Judea and Samaria Border Guard forces denied that an arrest was made, but after requests from Ynet for a response to the pictures and video from the scene, they said the forces were called to Havat Gilad after stone throwing incidents.

"Violent clashes ensued. Officers were forced to use pepper spray on one teenager, who was detained and arrested for violent behavior," the Border Guard said.

Officials added that "the situation has now clamed down after the teenager managed to escape with some help from his friends. Border guard officers remain at the scene in order to prevent further clashes between the settlers and security forces".

Havat Gilad Spokesman Yehuda Shimon expressed his disapproval of the way the arrest was carried out. "A dozen Border Guard officers arrived at the yeshiva with no warrant, approached the 15-year-old and asked him to accompany them. He asked them why and then one of the officers choked him and sprayed him in the face with pepper spray".

The Samaria Settlers' Committee has said that representatives intend to file a complaint with the police internal affairs unit over the arrest.

"There were no incidents of stone throwing or violence carried out by any residents. This is a case of blatant police brutality - the pictures and video footage from the yeshiva speak for themselves", the committee said.

Settler sources confirmed that the field in question was most likely set on fire by the settlers, but expressed surprise over the move and said that: "There are no olive trees in the area, only trimmings which were set on fire 500 meters away from Havat Gilad; it's unclear what the arsonists were trying to achieve."

Clashes between Border guard officers and settlers near the Havat Gilad settlement in Samaria after a Palestinian field was set on fire nearby. Settlers claimed that the Border Guards arrested a 15 year old using violence and tear gas.

The Border Guards claim that the settlers were dispersed without use of force or crowd dispersal means and stressed that they were unaware of any arrests carried out at the scene or use of pepper spray.

Samaria residents confirmed that the field in question was most likely set on fire by the settlers, but expressed surprise over the move and said that: "There are no olive trees in the area, only trimmings and so the purpose of the fire is unclear"

BETHLEHEM, (PIC)-- Residents of the Bethlehem village of Housan said Jews from the Beitar settlement, illegally founded near the village, recently released waste water on Arab farmlands causing heavy losses and health concerns.

Villagers said the waste water affected crops of olives, grapes, figs, and almonds on lands belonging to the Hamamira family.

Locals previously reported that an Israeli bus company located at the settlement entrance extended sewer lines under private farmlands.

Waste water and oil flowing in the land has damaged dozens of productive trees, residents added.

Meanwhile in Saflit, Israeli bulldozers continued to plow down private Palestinian land to expand the west Salfit Jewish settlement of Etz Efraim.

Locals reported that Israeli bulldozers were rapidly toiling without break to dig up farmlands belonging to residents of the Masha and Saniria villages to build new residential units.

The construction was taking place on the ruins of a road linking the two villages which was shut down by Israeli forces during the Aqsa intifada (uprising) and annexed to the separation wall, sources said, adding that olive groves along the road were also excavated.

Locals hold that the Arab region of Salfit is a hotspot for the expansion and launch of new Jewish settlements

An Israeli military spokesman said forces used riot-dispersal means to subdue a riot. Some 50 Palestinians burned tires and hurled rocks at Israeli vehicles, he said, and one civilian vehicle was damaged.

Hebron - PNN - David Wilder, self-described extremist and spokesman for the isolated community of Jewish settlers in Hebron, makes his points courteously in a mild New Jersey accent. He says even when Christiane Amanpour, the resident witch of CNN yelled at him, he would not yell back. He relies instead on his statements to raise eyebrows.

Palestinian culture, Palestinian heritage it's all bobbemeintze, it doesn't exist, he asserts, using a Yiddish word for nonsense. There never was a Palestinian people, there still isn't a Palestinian people, and that's why I don't call them Palestinians. It's all a fiction that today the world accepts in order to try to destroy the state of Israel.

Wilder's theory, which is typically passed around more in online comment sections than in policy circles, is only surprising because of his situation: he is surrounded by at least 200,000 of the people he claims do not exist.

The Jewish Community of Hebron, of which Wilder is the spokesman, is comprised of four neighborhoods near the old city of Hebron in an Israeli-controlled area called H2 it and its Palestinian Authority-controlled counterpart H1 were created as part of a 1997 agreement. Wilder puts the number at about 800 Jews living between the four communities, along with the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement, he says the total number in Greater Hebron is close to 10,000 (by contrast, there are 35,000 Palestinians in H2). But Beit Menachem, where he lives, does not exactly bustle.

The main street of Beit Menachem, empty all day, hardly resembles the rest of Hebron.

A settler's car putters down the street in Beit Menachem about once every minute. Shops are empty or closed, alleyways are closed off with razor wire, and Israeli soldiers there are about 300 of them, or about one for every two settlers patrol the roughly mile-long settlement with no particular aim. A 2007 report on the Hebron settlements by Israeli human rights group B'tselem appears to have been titled aptly: Ghost Town.

But Wilder is enthusiastic about his community and insists it isn't propped up from outside.

Look, everybody in Hebron works, he explains. I don't think there's anybody who's unemployed. People do not receive any money [from the government] the only money that Hebron receives is [the same] as any municipality receives for municipal services. So it is in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, everywhere.

Where government money may not flow, however, foreign NGOs pick up the tab. Extensive investigations point specifically to the Hebron Fund, a Brooklyn-based charity that most recently sponsored a Hebron Aid Flotilla dinner cruise in New York City, and American bingo-business millionaire Irving Moskowitz. According to a 2009 report by the International Crisis Group, the Hebron Fund's annual fundraising amounts to about $1.5 million, while Moskowitz contributes several hundred thousand dollars a year.

The money supports a yeshiva enrolling 300 young Jewish men, a playground in the Beit Hadassah compound, and everyday home improvements. But it cannot buy an economy for the tiny and isolated Jewish community, and human rights observers fear the money tax exempt under US law for educational, religious, or charitable purposes is landing the hands of violent Jewish extremists.

Hashem al-'Azza, a Palestinian resident of H2, speaks to a group of Swedes about settler attacks on his home.

Hashem al-Azza, a Palestinian refugee living in H2 and about five minutes from his crazy neighbor Wilder, brings tourists in from around the world to see his broken windows, slashed water pipes, and poisoned grapes. He tells his stories: about the months he had to climb over a wall every day to get to his house, the main passage having been sealed by the Israeli army, about his wife's three lost pregnancies, about the time a relative died and the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint wouldn't let him transport the body to be buried because the dead man's wristwatch set off the metal detector. He has videos of settler harassment and violence, including one in which an Israeli settler taunts a Palestinian woman behind a fence, calling her a whore.

These grapes, according to al-'Azza, have been poisoned by his settler neighbors

For his part, Wilder plays down the allegations but admits there is no love lost between Arabs and Jews. In specific Hebron incidents, he says he is either not personally responsible, proudly defending his community, or set up. He cites one well-known street near the Ibrahimi Mosque known to Jews as HaMachpela, Cave of the Patriarchs where Israeli settlers living above Palestinian shopkeepers have been known to throw their trash on the people below.

I've seen it, he says. They create a disturbance. People go outside to see what's happening and they see [Palestinians] there with drums and trumpets and making a lot of noise. People are people and after a while, they see that nothing is being done to stop it, so they go up and get a bucket of water and you know, what's so bad about a bucket of water? and as they come back, all the photographers who have been waiting on the side, they come out and they take pictures of the monstrous Jews in Hebron dumping water or throwing egg down underneath and they publish that. And nobody ever sees why it happens.

A Palestinian shopkeeper keeps this textile, ruined by an egg thrown by a settler above, for display.

Wilder, who emigrated from the United States in 1974, speaks for the settlers with the siege imagery that characterizes many on the Israeli right: a two-state solution is national suicide, Israel is a little dot surrounded by hostile Arabs, he compares the currently serving Arab Ministers of the Knesset to al-Qaeda, and he gladly chooses survival over pure democracy. He carries a gun everywhere, and though he says he'd be very happy to see a day when he wouldn't need it, he won't enumerate specific compromises he and other settlers would have to make to see that day.

Still, Wilder insists on the humanity of his project, joking darkly about the image much of the world has of Israeli settlers.

This morning I cleaned my mustache so there's no blood dripping off from the Arab that I finished for breakfast, he says. We're accused of being monsters.

A monster he cannot accept, but an extremist Wilder is proud to be. He refers to the prophet Abraham as his great-great grand daddy, a man who insisted on monotheism while his peers worshipped idols, the practice for which he was perceived as extreme.

I continue to believe in one god, says Wilder. And I continue to believe that God gave me this land.

Settler graffiti on a wall inside H2, depicting the state of Israel without Palestine.

Divisions in Hebron run deeper than anywhere else in the West Bank, with each side claiming a massacre as evidence of theother's treachery Jews slain in 1929, Palestinians gunned down in 1994. Jews lived in Hebron, site of Abraham's cave, for centuries. Mainly conservative Muslims now comprise the overwhelming majority. But in spite of the city's immense religious importance, numerically speaking the Jews here comprise a very small proportion of all Israeli settlers, and would likely be evacuated in any two-state solution entailing a contiguous Palestine.

Wilder prefers not to think about the prospect, claiming most Israelis break with Prime Minister Netanyahu on the idea of a two-state solution the only exception for him being, half seriously, We get Israel and they get Texas.

As peace talks falter, however, Wilder and the Hebron Jews remain for the most part ideologically and geographically isolated. A step outside the Beit Menachem checkpoint reminds one that Hebron is full of Palestinians, mostly shopping, none openly threatening anyone. Soldiers check everyone's bags, and the flashpoint of the southern West Bank watches another tense day go by.

Security forces prevent Hilltop Youth from praying in West Bank city. 'Jewish presence in the synagogues there must be renewed,' group's leader says.

The security forces on Friday afternoon prevented 19 Hilltop Youth members from reaching two synagogues in the West Bank city of Jericho. The Israel Defense Forces and Judea and Samaria Police set up barriers on the roads leading to the Palestinian city and detained the right-wing activists for questioning on suspicion of trying to enter Area A.

Twenty-one activists making their way to the city from others directions, through open areas and Jewish communities, were not arrested. The IDF declared the entrance to Jericho and its surroundings a closed military zone.

One of Hilltop Youth's leaders, Meir Bartler, told Ynet about the activity's goal. "We are demanding a renewal of the Jewish presence in the synagogue and are conveying a clear message to the army and to the government on our right to settle anywhere in the State of Israel," he explained.

IDF: This is a provocation

Bartler stressed that Israeli access to the synagogues was mentioned in the Oslo Accords, and that these places were deserted in 2000 in the middle of the al-Aqsa Intifada, for security reasons.

"Now that the security-related situation is better, there is no reason not to renew the Jewish presence there," he argued. "We will continue this activity. We won't rest and won't keep silent until Israel regains control of those areas. If the army and government don't understand that, we're here to remind them."

IDF declares closed military zone

Hilltop Youth members have been struggling for Israel to regain control of the Jericho synagogues for the past year. Hundreds of teens affiliates with the movement have joined a new body which organizes small delegations to the synagogues on a weekly basis, without coordinating the visits with the security forces. This week's activity included dozens of youths from all across Judea and Samaria.

Sources in the group told Ynet that Shin Bet officials had tried to convince them not to enter Jericho on Friday. They provided a recording of a person warning them that anyone trying to enter the Palestinian city would be arrested on the spot.

A defense establishment source told Ynet that the IDF and Palestinian Authority officials had ah agreement that in the event of Israelis' entry to the synagogues, the army would be in charge of removing the Israelis in order to avoid clashes with the Palestinian police.

The Judea and Samaria Police and the IDF said they were aware of the Israelis' plan to reach the synagogues and had prepared to stop them. A military source stressed that Israelis are allowed to enter one of the synagogues in coordination with the IDF, and so the uncoordinated attempts are being viewed as a provocation.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- A rights group in occupied Jerusalem warned Saturday that Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) have kicked off a new scheme aimed at isolating the city's Arab district of Al-Issawiya from the rest of the city.

Similar isolation patterns were already witnessed by the Zaeem, Ras Shahada, Ras Khamees, Dahiya Al-Salam, and Sha'fat sections of the holy city, the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights added.

The rights center went on to say that the IOA already started a few months ago implementing a plan to close down the district's northeastern entrance and attempted to shut down the main western entrance leading to the Jewish French Hill settlement.

Infrastructure and a network of roads linking Issawiya's eastern entrance to the Ma'bar area, which was built on the western entrance of Sha'fat, are also under construction.

After Issawiya's southern entrance was blocked off a few years back, Palestinians believe the changes were retaliatory acts the Israeli government was taking against them over their constant resistance of the occupation.

A new Israeli police headquarters was established in Issawiya on a road linking Jerusalem to the city of Jericho.

Authorities are planning to build thousands of residential units for Jewish settlers, industrial zones, and tourist resorts set to bridge the Maale Adumim settlement with the holy city over a land area of 12,400 dunums taken from the districts of Bethany, Zaeem, Tur, and Issawiya.

In a related context, the Silwan defense committee revealed Saturday it had received data confirming that Israeli authorities were planning to destroy homes in the city's Al-Bustan district directly after the Eid holidays.

Committee head Fahkri Abu Diab told The Jerusalem Information Center on Saturday that a meeting will be held on Tuesday, the first day of Eid Al-Adha, between the Knesset Interior Committee, Israel's Jerusalem municipality's judicial consultant, representatives from the Israeli police force and nature preservation committee, demolition contractors, and far right members of the Israeli Knesset.

Abu Diab, quoting reliable sources, said the Jerusalem municipality has given the green light to tear down homes in Silwan and other Arab districts of Jerusalem.

The homes of Khalil Al-Abbassi in Ain Al-Lawza, Mohammed Ashour Al-Razim in Silwan, and Ayman Abu Rumaila in Beit Hanina were identified as some of the targeted residences.

Young right-wing activists barricade themselves in ancient synagogue in West Bank city of Jericho Saturday evening. At least eight detained by security forces, IDF confirms; others manage to flee into town.

At least eight young Jews were detained Saturday evening by IDF forces after barricading themselves in an ancient synagogue in Jericho.

About seven or eight other youngsters managed to flee the scene into the West Bank town.

The rightist activists involved in the incident are members of a group affiliated with the so-called hilltop youth in Judea and Samaria.

The activists, who departed from Benjamin region communities, held a prayer session at the Na'aran synagogue earlier and prepared to face security forces. Another 15 activists said they were planning to barricade themselves at the Shalom Al Yisrael synagogue in Jericho.

On Friday, dozens of youngsters aged 16-20 also attempted to reach the Jericho synagogues but were nabbed by troops on the way to town.

Meir Bartler, a hilltop youth leader, told Ynet earlier that as opposed to previous attempts, the activists had no intention of leaving the site.

"We won't make do with prayer. We have sleeping bags, food, and equipment needed for a long stay at the site. We expect the army to allow our presence there and to secure it," he said. "If evicted, we'll make every effort to return soon.

Referring to the possibility that the youngsters may confront troops, he said: "We're engaged in settlement activity and not in attacking soldiers."

In recent months, the Jericho region has turned into a focal point of activity for hilltop youths. A few days ago, the Judea and Samaria police held 11 Israelis for questioning after they entered a closed military zone north of Jericho. Officials suspected that the Israelis intended to continue to a synagogue located in Area A of the West Bank.

Hilltop youth activists renewed their activities Saturday night with the intent of reaching Na'aran and Shalom Al Yisrael Synagogues in Jericho. The activists said that 15 of their members are currently praying in Na'aran with the intent to barricading themselves there.

According to reports, more activists are making their way to the Palestinian city and plan on staying there in order to "renew Israeli control."

Both instances occurred in West Jerusalem, and were precipitated by Jewish Israeli individuals asking the targets for a cigarette. When the targets complied with the requests, previously unseen men came out and attacked the Palestinians. Both were admitted to hospital.

On 6 November, 21-year-old Silwan resident Anan Jawad Yaghmour stepped out of a taxi at Hillel Street in West Jerusalem heading to work at his construction job, when a woman stopped him and asked if she could have a cigarette.

Yaghmour told the rights center that suddenly, at least four men came forward and beat him. He said he yelled that he was a Jew whose parents were from Morocco, adding that the beating stopped for long enough for the assailants to check his identity card, which revealed he was a Muslim Palestinian. He said the beating continued, and he was left unconscious and without his mobile phone.

During the beating, he added, the assailants used rocks and pepper spray to control him. He said he was not revived until a police cruiser picked him up. An ambulance was then called and Yaghmour was transferred to the Hadassa Ein Karem Hospital.

On 31 October, the center's report continued, a similar attack was reported near the Mamilla cemetery, just over the Green Line into West Jerusalem. Forty-one-year-old Ahmad Sbeih told the center he was approached by one man asking for a cigarette, and when he reached into his pocket, he said other men approached him.

They said that the settlers came from a settlement outpost near the village and set more than 15 dunums of olive trees on fire.

The sources said that the area contained more than 150 olive trees and that fire had spread all over the area.

14 nov 2010

Post-freeze: Settlers build with frenzy

Yesha Council official says Netanyahu 'prone to pressure', so 'it is obvious that this is a temporary recess' as settler leaders struggle to build as many homes possible before another construction moratorium takes hold.

With the threat of another construction freeze looming around the corner, settlers in the West Bank did not waste time: Within less than two months hundreds of housing units which have previously been authorized and whose construction had been halted following the moratorium, have been built.

"It was obvious to us all that this was a temporary recess and that Netanyahu, who is prone to being pressured, will not be able to maintain it for long," a senior official at the Yesha Council said Sunday.

Leaders of the settlement blocs said that they hurried to build as many housing units upon the resumption of construction in September to avoid any real damage should the freeze be renewed. "Our goal was to start building as many structures as possible," a senior Yesha Council official said. "The aim was to lay as many foundations as possible so we could concentrate on continuing construction after the renewed freeze and allow ourselves another year's breathing space," he added.

The smaller settlements outside the major settlement blocs were most productive, as council heads were able to authorize construction in accordance with outline plans, and settlers admitted that between 300 and 400 housing units were built in Gush Etzion since the end of the freeze. The Shomron Regional Council refused to comment on the number of new units, but sources close to the council said that some 300 units had been built. An additional 200-300 new units were set up at the Binyamin Regional Council.

Some of the council heads refused to divulge specific data, fearing these would prompt criticism and "end the party." Dozens of units have already been built in such settlements as Ariel, Kedumin, Beit Aryeh-Ofarim and Ma'ale Adumin. Meanwhile, thousands more are pending approval. In Efrat for example, some 277 units which already have infrastructure are stuck in the bureaucratic circle.

A report issued by Peace Now claims that since the end of the freeze the construction of 1,649 housing units has begun, of which 1,126 units have had their foundations laid.

The group claims that the settlers have almost closed the gap created by the freeze during the past six weeks. The settlers, however reject the data presented in the report. "The report is just bizarre," Yesha Council chairman Danny Dayan said. "I regret to say that data on the ground are significantly lower than in the report. Its aim was political and therefore its data has been inflated. "

Meanwhile, leaders of the settlement blocs are not particularly concerened with a renewed moratorium, claiming it was never truly lifted. "The show of innocence has to end. A freeze exited long before the official moratorium," Alfei Menashe Regional Council head Hesdai Eliezer said. "Any construction in the settlement blocs, regardless of the freeze, requires the approval of the defense minister, and it has been suspended for a long time."

The construction of 1,650 new settler units has started on the occupied Palestinian lands since the end of a partial freeze in Israeli settlement activities in September.

Figures compiled in a new report by the Israeli group Peace Now show that in more than two-thirds of the cases, building work had begun on the foundations for new units, with work being carried out in 63 separate settlements.

During 2009, construction work began on 1,888 new housing units, the report said, citing data from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.

"Had the construction continued at the same speed without the freeze, work would have begun on 1,574 units during the 10 months of the moratorium," Peace Now said.

"In the six weeks since the end of the moratorium, the settlers have managed to start construction on a similar number of units."

The report was published just hours before a meeting by Israel's Cabinet to discuss a US incentives package designed to persuade Tel Aviv to place a new partial freeze on settlement activities in a bid to salvage stalled direct talks with the Palestinians.

A source close to the negotiations said the proposal would involve a 90-day settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank but not in east al-Quds (Jerusalem).

It would involve freezing all construction started since the end of the partial moratorium on September 26.

Settlers: Netanyahu's word worthless

Leaders of West Bank's Jewish communities blast plan to impose 90-day construction freeze. 'No limit to deceitfulness and dishonesty; PM waging war on Land of Israel,' they say.

The chairman of the Yesha Council called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to accept a US proposal and impose a three-month construction moratorium in the West Bank a "surrender of those who demanded reciprocity."

Speaking to Ynet on Sunday, Naftali Bennett said, "Three weeks ago Netanyahu told the world he would not extend the freeze even by one day unless the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Now nothing. The whole world is assessing Netanyahu from (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad to (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas and (US President Barack) Obama. If he folds now, his word will have zero value in the future."

Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika said any announcement on the renewal of the West Bank construction freeze would "begin the countdown to the end of Netanyahu's government.

"We thought there was a limit to the deceitfulness and dishonesty even when it comes to a politician like Bibi. But now it is clear that Netanyahu is a tiger on television but a frightened cat on the ground," he said.

"This capitulation is a severe blow to the settlement enterprise and jeopardizes the state's existence. We'll politically persecute any minister who backs (the freeze) or does not oppose it."

The Shomron Settlers' Committee is expected to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the issue. Chairman Benny Katzover said Netanyahu was "waging war on the Land of Israel."

Lieutenant-Colonel (res.) Itzik Shadmi, who serves as chairman of the Binyamin Settlers' Committee, said, "It has been proven that any surrender to the Arabs only brings about more terror."